My friend and I just began running, and our third friend, who has done track before, insisted we needed new sneakers.
"Yours literally have holes in the bottom of them."
Okay, yes our shoes were a couple years old and were kind of dingy. But we never used them to run in. We were like "sneakers are sneakers. as long as they have pretty colors and don't look like loser shoes, I'm okay."
Apparently not so.
I found Northampton Running Company (apparently a subset of Woodbridge Running Company? I don't know) online because they carried Sauconys, which our expert friend considered the best. We caught a bus and walked down a long street in the cold misting rain, wondering where the heck this place was, only to find it tucked further from the road. It looked small, which made me worried if they had what I was looking for, but we went in.
Whoever was working there at the time was helping someone else out, so we looked at the clothes and shoes on display against one wall. Now this place was small, like the size of a cute ice cream shop, but it IS northampton and many stores aren't that big there. We were a tad shocked by the prices, but then again we weren't used to buying running shoes.
"$120?! I don't want to spend more than like $50."
"That's why you buy them online."
I felt rather bad we were saying this. Our plan had been to check out shoes and then buy them cheaper online. The man working there was friendly though and said hi, asking if he could help us with anything.
I explained my situation with my flat feet. He told me to walk around, observing my walk, and took a look at my shoes. He determined I had mildly collapsing arches. He went to find some shoes for me. As I tried on the sneakers, I noted they felt a bit tight. He found me wider sneakers which worked much better.
Meanwhile, he helped out my two other friends. Soon, we were running all over the tiny store, trying to gauge what felt the best. He was very patient and helpful with his answers, telling us what arch supports did, how much arches matter (or actually don't matter), what running form is ideal (where in your shoes you should be pushing off from), what the labels on the shoes meant, which shoes wore out the most, etc etc.
The floor was covered in shoes. We felt like children playing with toys. It was a lot of fun.
Eventually we all wound up buying the same shoe: the Asics GT-2000, all in different sizes. It was a funny coincidence that we all fell in love with its comfort and freedom, but its awesomeness was not to bemy denied.
Jeff (we finally found out his name) told us we could try them out and return them if they didn't work out. He rang us up and gave us 10% off (so nice, plus my friends are good about asking for discounts with huge purchases). It's funny that we came in not planning to buy anything, but really, Jeff's service impressed us a lot. He could easily have been cold and irritable knowing that we sounded like we weren't going to buy anything. It was really sweet that he really tried to help us figure out what was best for us and told us to take our time - no rush. Apparently other people have been far worse (I thought I was indecisive, but 4 hours picking shoes is excessive).
I really had a fantastic experience at Northampton Running Company, and what's even more awesome is that they're cheaper than buying offline. I also prefer spending money in local stores vs online ginumbo ones - you never know who it's going to with big impersonal companies. But local shops are a dying breed so I like to support them. They have a wonderful personal touch and that's a huge part of shopping that I think we often overlook. It was clear that Jeff really loved running and it's awesome to have those kinds of people to help beginners out. I am super grateful and hope to go back there again for my next pair!
(oh and they have a giant box where you can recycle your sneakers too: +1) read more
